TCPA was started by five companies; M$ wasn't the first on to get onto it (go fig, right?), intel started it. but M$ is definately spearheading the software package for it -- hence "palladium". IBM and AMD will produce the chipsets and later the CPU's for it; i can't remember who the fifth is.
MPAA and RIAA are buying congress members to make the sale or transfer of any non-tcpa complient machine ilegal. If they succeed, it will be illegal to sell or give away you current computer, mp3 player, cd player, dvd player/recorder, or anything else that has the potential to view any copyrightable digital content. PDA's, webphones, laptops, all become illegal to buy, sell, or even traffick. D-SC Sen. Fritz Hollings is the main one. He has recieved $278,000+ from TV/Music/Movies groups.
if you want more info, check out ross anderson's faq:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html -t.
[ August 04, 2002: Message edited by: beltorak0 ]